Jeff Sessions Succumbs to the Trump-Russia Scandal

Jeff Sessions at a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., after recusing himself from investigations regarding Donald Trump’s campaign ties to Russia.

By Win McNamee/Getty Images.

Facing mounting political pressure on Capitol Hill, attorney general Jeff Sessions announced during a press conference on Thursday that he would recuse himself from the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. “I have decided to recuse myself from any matters arising from the campaigns for President of the United States,” Sessions wrote in a press release.

Sessions’s decision to distance himself from the F.B.I. probe, which falls under the purview of the Justice Department, comes less than 24 hours after The Washington Postreported that the former Alabama senator and early Trump supporter met Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak twice in the months before the election—including a private meeting in his office at the height of accusations that the Kremlin directed a series of cyber-attacks against the Democratic Party—despite him having claimed, under oath during his Senate confirmation hearing, that he did not have contact with Russian officials during that time.

The Post report incited a swift backlash in Congress and prompted calls from both sides of the aisle for Sessions’s recusal from the Russian investigation. In his brief address to reporters amid the fervor, Sessions hewed closely to the defense both he and his spokesperson offered previously, arguing that the meetings with Kislyak were in his capacity as senator and member of the Armed Services Committee—not as a Trump campaign surrogate. Sessions pushed back on the allegations that he may have perjured himself during the hearing, characterizing his answers as “honest and correct,” and said that he was “taken aback” by Minnesota Senator Al Franken’s line of questioning. “With retrospect, I should have slowed down and said I did meet with one Russian official and that was the Russian ambassador,” he said.

At various times throughout the press conference, Sessions had a difficult time remembering specific details of his interactions with Kislyak. When asked what was discussed during the private meeting with the Russian envoy, which took place in September of last year, the attorney general responded, “It was just normal things,” and said he didn’t recall “any specific political discussions.” Ambassadors, he pointed out, “are always out trying to find out things and advance their agenda.”

The former senator failed to remember whether he had met the Russian envoy outside of the two occasions detailed in the Post report. And he hedged when asked about other potential Russian contacts. “I don’t believe so,” Sessions responded, maintaining a lawyerly comportment throughout. “We meet a lot of people.”

The scandal surrounding Sessions highlighted, once again, the failure of the Trump administration to stick to one story or stay on message. At his press conference Thursday, Sessions said that he informed the White House of his plan to recuse himself from the F.B.I. investigation. Hours earlier, however, Trump appeared to be on a totally separate page. When asked by reporters in Virginia shortly before the press conference whether he thought a recusal was necessary, the president replied, “I don’t think so,” and expressed his “total” confidence in Sessions. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said that Sessions was “100 percent straight” with the Senate Judiciary Committee when he said last month that he’d had no communications with the Russians.

“They don’t know the rules, the ethics rules, most people don’t,” Sessions said when asked about the administration’s position. “But when you evaluate the rules I feel like I am—I should not get involved investigating a campaign I had a role in.”

While Sessions’s announcement will likely assuage concerns within his own party—a number of whom, including Senators Susan Collins, Marco Rubio and Rob Portman, had suggested Sessions remove himself from the probe—it is unlikely to quell Democratic outrage. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, among dozens of other top-ranking Democrats, have called for Sessions to resign. “When Senator Sessions testified under oath that ‘I did not have communications with the Russians,’ his statement was demonstrably false, yet he let it stand for weeks,” House Oversight Committee member Elijah Cummings said in a statement, adding that Sessions should resign immediately. “There is no longer any question that we need a truly independent commission to investigate this issue.”